[Pod przysądem horodnictwa Wileńskiego: o jurydyce i jej mieszkańcach w XVII wieku. Kamil Frejlich] : recenzija

ENThe historiography of cities in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) has long been dominated by themes such as the expansion of a network of city-type settlements and the spread of Germanic law (Magdeburg and other versions). The GDL’s capital Vilnius, belonging to the category of large cities, is often compared in literature to other cities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, primarily to Krakow. More recent historiography has begun to devote greater attention to the ‘agglomerate’ character of Vilnius: a number of jurisdictions not subject to Germanic law existed in the city alongside the Magdeburgian jurisdictions. Even though none of them have ever had a whole monograph devoted to their analysis, the object of Kamil Frejlich’s book, the jurisdiction of the Vilnius horodnictwo (or jurydyka horodnictwa wileńskiego: horodniczy, ‘castle supervisor’, jurydyka, ‘the territorial entity subordinate to him’) has been researched by others, in addition to the prewar author Euzebiusz Łopaciński. Raimonda Ragauskienė has taken an interest in 16th-century castle supervisors, and Domininkas Burba has analysed 18th-century record books from this jurisdiction. Thus, the monograph by this young Polish historian does fill this gap, shedding more light on the object of research in the 17th century. Before going into detail, it can be stated that after the publication of the excellent monographs by David Frick and Tomasz Kempa in the last decade, and a swathe of source publications, this has proven to be another serious tome bringing the history of 17th-century Vilnius closer to the public, and is very necessary, as the 700th anniversary of the city approaches. [...]. [Extract, p. 164-165]